Summary

There is a small but intriguing number of studies that suggested that the pathophysiology of heart failure is different in women than it is in men. These include the fact that women often have higher left ventricular ejection fractions (LVEFs) [Bhatia RS et al. N Engl J Med 2006; Owan TE et al. N Engl J Med 2006] and more hypertrophy [Kostkiewicz M et al. Int J Cardiol 1999], and are more likely to have dyspnea and edema [Johnstone D et al. J Cardiol 1992].